Multiple Networks


These are some hints if you use multiple mirrored fileservers and you need to map drives to the same machines.

RR does only support global settings for drive mappings which are the same for all clients.


Workarounds:


Local shell script file

If you need to access data that RR does not care about (RR needs to access scene file and output folder, it does not care about shader workgroup, texture data, ...), then you can create a local batch script to map/mount the drive.

Add a call/source to the local script file in [RR]\render_apps\_setenv\win\_global.bat.

This file is executed every time before a render is started. 

Local host file

Add a virtual machine name to each client. Each network will be able to use //localmirror as computer name, although this machine does not exist.

Edit the local system host file. Add a line 192.168.0.34 localmirror

Now you can use \\localmirror on this machine. And therefore for the drive mappings in rrConfig.


Sync external files of your scene (Textures, Reference Models, the data RR does not care about ):

If you have all Textures in a seperate folder ( or better: a per-shot directory structure), then you could sync these external files.

Either edit the Setenv file or the render config.


Example:

You have 2 fileserver:

ServerA where the scene file was created, serverB is the fileserver for your render farm.

You use ServerAlias as fileserver name on both sides for the local fileserver


Example:

You have 2 fileserver:

ServerA where the scene file was created, serverB is the fileserver for your render farm.

You use ServerAlias as fileserver name on both sides for the local fileserver


Scene File:

//ServerAlias/share/projectX/3D/shot23/scenes/myscene.mb

Texture Folder:

//ServerAlias/share/projectX/3D/shot23/textures


Now edit the render config file of your renderer.

Add a line

CommandLine_Win=<rrBin>rrCopy -sync <Replace "<scene></..>textures" , ServerAlias , ServerA> "<scene></..>textures"

This will sync all files from //ServerA/share/projectX/3D/shot23/textures to //ServerAlias/share/projectX/3D/shot23/textures


Note: If you are at location A, then ServerA is the same as ServerAlias. Therefore -sync will not copy any files as they are the same.